Rejected arson plea raises questions about boy's conviction

A Northampton County judge has thrown out a guilty plea from Karla Dewey… (HARRY FISHER, THE MORNING…)

July 12, 2013|By Riley Yates, Of The Morning Call

In May, a Nazareth woman stood crying before a Northampton County judge and admitted she set fire to her townhouse last year while her 3-year-old son was at home with her.

Karla Ann Dewey had been in front Judge Anthony Beltrami before, he later realized.

In another arson case. As a witness.

A witness against a 14-year-old boy. A boy accused in juvenile court of setting fire to a row of apartments where Dewey lived in Stockertown in 2007.

A fire that Dewey reported to police. A fire the judge convicted the boy of starting, despite his claims of innocence.

Emotion evident in his voice Friday, Beltrami threw out Dewey's guilty plea and recused himself from her case, saying he now questions the outcome of that juvenile trial.

"I personally have doubts about what happened," said Beltrami, who told Dewey he plans to appoint an attorney for the boy in light of his review of the boy's court file.

"What I saw in the file leads me to believe I cannot be fair in your case," Beltrami said, adding: "There's no way I can give you a fair trial."

The dramatic courtroom confrontation came before what was supposed to be a sentencing hearing for Dewey, 31, who had pleaded guilty to arson and reckless endangerment for a blaze in March 2012 that destroyed the Green Street home she rented and damaged other attached townhouses. As part of the plea bargain, prosecutors withdrew charges in another arson case.

Dewey, who is incarcerated, said nothing to Beltrami as he raised his concerns about her role in the 14-year-old boy's conviction, but she was in tears as she was led out of the courtroom.

Beltrami did not name the boy, his hometown or the year the fire occurred. But Assistant District Attorney Michael Thompson, who is assigned to juvenile court, confirmed the case was that of Zachary Handley, who was adjudicated delinquent for a blaze at a row of apartments near Main Street in Stockertown on Nov. 27, 2007.

Handley was later sentenced by a different judge, William Moran, to at least 60 days at a youth detention facility in Franklin County, where he had to undergo fire-setters therapy. The boy was jailed in Easton's youth detention center before he was sentenced. He was also hit with a restitution order calling for him to pay back more than $600,000 in damages.

Handley's attorney at trial, Matthew Potts, said Friday that he has long believed his client's protestations of innocence.

"That is a case that has bothered me for years," Potts said. "I never thought Zach did it."

Efforts to contact Handley through relatives were unsuccessful.

Reached by telephone, his former stepmother, Brenda Elekes, said the case has plagued him, especially since he still owes restitution and now has a child of his own to support.

"The poor kid, he suffered after this whole thing and he has been since," she said. "It destroyed everything for him."

The blaze started on a sofa on the front porch of an apartment at 103 Bushkill St. Dewey, who lived two doors down, told The Morning Call at the time that youths were to blame.

"I'm happy that neighborhood kids think it's so funny to make people's lives miserable," she was quoted after the fire.

It was latest of three arsons, fire officials said, with trash fires also reported across the street. In speaking about the case against Handley, Beltrami referenced the house fire, along with one in a trash bin that he said Dewey also reported to police.

The judge also said that in her past, Dewey's childhood home burned to the ground.

When Dewey was arrested last year in the Nazareth allegations, police Chief Thomas Trachta said she was suspected in six other fires in that borough.

The arson Dewey pleaded guilty to was on March 13, 2012, at her home at 40 N. Green St., which is attached to four other townhouses. After the fire but before she was charged, the community raised money to help her and her husband, Richard, a former volunteer firefighter in Upper Nazareth Township.

Dewey initially told police she and their son were sleeping when the smoke alarm sounded, according to court records. But an investigation showed the fire was set on the couch, probably with a cigarette lighter, police said.

With Beltrami's decision to reject her guilty plea, Dewey is back to facing the second arson case. It alleges she lit a piece of poster board in October 2009 at St. John's United Church of Christ in Nazareth. That fire that quickly burned out.

Dewey underwent psychological and psychiatric evaluations after her guilty plea. Dr. Frank Dattilio, who examined Dewey for the defense, was on hand Friday, but was not called due to the developments.

Dewey's lawyer, Christopher Shipman, said he was aware of "previous issues" for his client, but he and Assistant District Attorney John Obrecht did not learn of the juvenile case until minutes before the hearing.

Thompson, the juvenile prosecutor, said he will review Handley's case in light of Beltrami's concerns.

Potts said Handley will likely be able to challenge his conviction through a post-conviction appeal, citing "after-discovered evidence."

At the trial, Beltrami said Friday he based his conviction of Handley on Dewey's testimony and a confession the boy gave to a police officer. But Beltrami noted Handley only made it after the officer told him that he could be released by Christmas if he did so, later claiming he was coerced.

Potts called it a "classic bad-confession case," though he said the apparent evidence taken together made it difficult for his client.

"The judge said what could he do, and he had a good point," Potts said. "He had a confession and he had a witness saying, 'He set the fire.'"